Man on the Street is a regular series where we talk to someone doing an everyday job, in order to gain insight into the lives of normal Chinese people.
It’s just stopped raining, and the air is heavy with humidity. As I stand outside a large, popular restaurant, a group of men wearing blue vests rush into the parking lot on bikes. Qin Hongtian is one of them. It’s on the early side of dinner time, and most of the people arriving are here for food and drink. Qin is not. He’s just here to wait.
Later, around 7.30pm, Qin is standing in front of the gate in his damp T-shirt, wet from either sweat or rain. He is still waiting. Darkness falls but you can easily spot Qin – and know his profession – by the red flashing light attached to his vest. The words on it read ‘E-Daijia,’ the name of an app company that hires drivers out to inebriated car owners in need of a sober chauffeur.
It seems like an easy way to pick up some cash, and the only qualification necessary is a valid license. According to Qin, however, it can also be a lethal profession. “Two of our colleagues have died in the last two months in car accidents on their way back home,” he says. “This job is f*cking dangerous. Every month we get terrible news... I'm afraid next time it will be me.”
Fatalities generally take place when drivers are ending their shift in the pitch-black night – unsurprisingly, most people utilize the app during the late evening. Normally, Qin works from 6pm to 4am every single day.
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Besides the risk of physical harm, waiting is the other major challenge. “Sometimes I stand outside a bar for a whole night until 2am, but no one asks for a driver,” Qin says, noting that such an occurrence is not infrequent.
Apps like E-Daijia pick the nearest driver for fastest service. That means employees can’t just sit at home waiting comfortably for the orders to come rolling in. Instead, they have to come early and hang around restaurant entrances. “The salary is up to how long you wait,” Qin tells us several times, adding that it’s the secret to making money in this line.
Of course, driving intoxicated people home means you have to deal with all manner of buffoonery. “Some of them cry out loud, some unceasingly talk to me. Many think I’m a taxi driver; they pay me and then start to walk off, leaving me with their cars. Ironically, some of them are drivers for people who come here for dinner, but they get drunk somehow.”
At 8.30pm, people start to spill out into the parking lot, many reeking of booze, but nobody seems immediately interested in a driver. Then Qin’s phone begins to ring. The first order of the day comes suddenly, and he runs to his e-bike while answering one final question: why do it?
“I do this job for my family, for my kid. Maybe one day I will quit!”
THE DIRTY DETAILS
Monthly salary: RMB2,000-10,000
Days per week: 7
Hours per day: 10
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